In February 2014, Spiceworks Voice of IT surveyed 192IT pros in the US to learn how they manage VPN and the challenges experienced with their current solution. To qualify for the survey, they must be the person responsible for managing or supporting their organization’s VPN solution.

1. Netop – VPN Survey
Deployed to Spiceworks Voice of IT panel
in February 2014; 192 respondents in the United States

2. Executive Summary
IN THIS REPORT
Configuring a New VPN 3
Time Spent Maintaining
Existing VPNs 4
Type of VPN Solution 5
Accessing Applications 6
Vendor Access to Network 7
Types of Authentication 8
Number of Remote
Devices Supported 9
Effectiveness of Current
VPN Solution 10
Limitations of VPNs 11
Interest in an Alternative
VPN Solution 12
Respondent Profile 13
In February 2014, Spiceworks Voice of IT surveyed 192 IT pros in the US to learn how they
manage VPN and the challenges experienced with their current solution. To qualify for the
survey, they must be the person responsible for managing or supporting their organization’s
VPN solution.
Key findings of this report include:
• Roughly three-quarters of respondents have set up a VPN in the past year.
• The majority state their organization uses a firewall based service for their VPN solution, while
26% use a server based service. Further, most employ Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) (68%)
and / or Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS) (52%) for a VPN security protocol.
• Respondents are evenly split on whether they allow their vendors and / or trusted third
parties VPN access to their organization’s network. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents who
allow VPN access state their vendors can access department-specific business applications
(i.e. database software, accounting software).
• Three-quarters believe their VPN solution is very to extremely effective at providing
employees remote access to their organization’s intranet. Respondents also feel it’s very to
extremely effective at connecting multiple locations (63%) and pulling data for reports (47%).
• When asked about the greatest limitations of VPNs, nearly half state that the difficulty for
employees to connect remotely is the greatest limitation. Other limitations are reliability of
connection (35%), degree of expertise needed to configure (27%) and logging use (26%).
• When asked how interested they would be in a product that replicates the functions of a
VPN (but is easier to use and maintain), 47% indicate they’re somewhat interested, and 14%
are very to extremely interested.
The following pages provide detailed findings for all questions in the study.
About Spiceworks Voice of IT®
The Spiceworks Voice of IT® market insights program publishes stats, trends and opinions collected from small and medium business technology
professionals who are among the more than 2.5M users of Spiceworks. Survey panelists opt-in to answer questions on technology trends important
to them.
To use data from this report, visit: www.spiceworks.com/voice-of-it/terms
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3. To qualify for the survey, respondents must be the person responsible for managing or supporting
their organization’s VPN solution.
Of those who qualified, roughly three-quarters (76%) state they’ve set up a VPN in the past year.
However, 24% state they haven’t set one up in the past year.
When asked how much time they estimate it would take to configure a new VPN, 31% believe it
would take less than 15 minutes, 17% indicate 15 to 29 minutes, 29% indicate 30 minutes to an hour,
and 17% indicate it would take more than an hour.
Have you set up a VPN in the past year?
Configuring a New VPN
Respondents = 191
3
Yes
76%
No
24%
Respondents = 192
How much time do you estimate it would take you
to configure a new VPN?
6%
17%
29%
17%
23%
8%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
Don’t know
More than an hour
30 minutes to an hour
15 to 29 minutes
5 to 14 minutes
Less than 5 minutes

4. Time Spent Maintaining Existing VPNs
When it comes to maintaining existing VPNs and managing user rights pertaining to VPNs, more than
two-thirds (69%) state it takes less than an hour each month, while 26% indicate one to four hours,
and 4% indicate more than four hours each month.
How much time do you spend each month maintaining existing VPNs and
managing user rights pertaining to VPNs?
Respondents = 192
4
1%
1%
3%
26%
69%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Don't know
More than 10 hours each month
4 to 10 hours each month
1 to 4 hours each month
Less than an hour each month

5. Type of VPN Solution
The majority of respondents (72%) state their organization uses a firewall based service for their VPN
solution, while 26% use a server based service.
Most respondents state their organization uses Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) (68%) and / or
Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS) (52%). Other protocols used are Secure Shell VPN (SSH) (20%) and
Microsoft Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (17%).
What type of VPN solution does your company use?
(Select all that apply.)
Respondents = 192
Which of the following VPN security protocols does your
company employ? (Select all that apply.)
Respondents = 191
5
6%
7%
26%
72%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
Other
External VPN Service
Provider
Server based service
Firewall based service
3%
1%
2%
6%
17%
20%
52%
68%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Other
Multi Path Virtual Private Network
(MPVPN)
Datagram Transport Layer Security
(DTLS)
Microsoft Secure Socket Tunneling
Protocol
Microsoft Point-to-Point Tunneling
Protocol
Secure Shell VPN (SSH)
Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS)
Internet Protocol Security (IPsec)

6. Respondents = 191
The majority of respondents state their organization’s employees use the VPN tunnel for file sharing
(80%) and department specific (72%) applications. Other applications include Email (50%) and
Internal web portal (40%). Sixteen percent indicate “other,” and these verbatim responses are
included in the Excel file provided.
What applications do your employees use through your VPN tunnel?
(Select all that apply.)
Accessing Applications
6
16%
20%
21%
40%
50%
72%
80%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
Other
Collaboration software (i.e. SharePoint)
Communication software (i.e. IM tool)
Internal web portal
Email
Department-specific (i.e. database software,
accounting software)
File sharing

7. Vendor Access to Network
Respondents are evenly split on whether they allow any of their vendors and / or trusted third parties
VPN access to their organization’s network.
Of the 50% of respondents who allow VPN access, 65% allow vendors access to department-specific
business applications (i.e. database software, accounting software). Other programs or systems are
FTP / other file sharing (32%) and collaboration software (19%). Twenty-two percent indicate “other,”
and these verbatim responses are included in the Excel file provided.
Do you allow any of your vendors and/or trusted
3rd parties VPN access to your network?
Respondents = 192
What programs or systems are the vendors accessing?
(Select all that apply.)
Respondents = 95
7
Of IT pros who indicate vendors / 3rd parties have access
Yes
50%
No
50%
22%
8%
14%
14%
19%
32%
65%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Other
Point of sale systems
Email
HVAC, building automation or
other facilities systems
Collaboration software
FTP / Other file sharing
Department-specific business
applications

8. Types of Authentication
Nearly all respondents (93%) use passwords for authentication, while an additional 29% use two-factor
authentication.
Further, the majority (89%) state this authentication is standardized across all VPNs in their
organization.
What types of authentication do you use with VPN
connections? (Select all that apply.)
Respondents = 191
Is authentication standardized across all VPNs in your
organization?
Respondents = 191
8
3%
1%
29%
93%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Other
Biometrics
Two-factor authentication
Passwords
Yes
89%
No
11%

9. Respondents = 191
When asked how many remote devices they support, three-quarters indicate they support one to
100 remote devices. However, 20% support more than 100 devices, and 4% indicate they don’t
support remote devices.
How many remote devices do you and your team support?
Number of Remote Devices Supported
9
4%
75%
17%
3% 1%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
None 1-100 101-1000 More than 1000 Don't know

10. Respondents = 186-188
Three-quarters of respondents believe their VPN solution is very to extremely effective at providing
employees remote access to their organization’s intranet. Respondents also feel it’s very to
extremely effective at connecting multiple locations (63%) and pulling data for reports (47%).
Using a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is not at all effective and 5 is extremely effective, please rank how
effective your VPN solution is at the following:
Effectiveness of Current VPN Solution
Weighted Average Top Two
(Very to
extremely
effective)
Bottom Two
(Not very to
not at all
effective)
Not
applicable
Providing access to
our intranet to
employees when
away from the office
75% 3% 9%
Connecting multiple
geographic locations
63% 5% 24%
Pulling data for reports 47% 14% 19%
Extending GUIs to end
users
42% 10% 35%
Connecting
unattended devices
34% 11% 35%
Accessing a VOIP
system
23% 14% 52%
Scale: (1) Not at all effective, (2) Not very effective, (3) Somewhat effective, (4) Very effective, (5) Extremely effective
10
1.6
2.3
2.4
3.0
3.2
3.9
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0
Accessing a VOIP system
Connecting unattended devices
Extending GUIs to end users
Pulling data for reports
Connecting multiple geographic
locations
Providing access to our intranet to
employees when away from the office

11. Respondents = 184
Nearly half (47%) state that the difficulty for employees to connect remotely is the greatest limitation
of VPNs. Other limitations are reliability of connection (35%), degree of expertise needed to
configure (27%) and logging use (26%).
Which of the following do you consider to be the greatest limitation of VPNs?
(Select all that apply.)
Limitations of VPNs
11
47%
35%
27% 26%
22% 22%
20%
8%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
Employee
difficulty
connecting
remotely
Reliability of
connection
Degree of
expertise
needed to
configure
Logging use Ease of use Level of
security
Managing
user access
rights
Other

12. When asked how interested they would be in a product that replicates the functions of a VPN (but is
easier to use and maintain), 47% indicate they’re somewhat interested, and 14% are very to
extremely interested. However, 39% indicate they’re not at all to not very interested.
How interested would you be in a product that replicated the functions of a VPN but was easier to
use and maintain and allowed port-specific access?
Interest in an Alternative VPN Solution
Respondents = 192
12
16%
23%
47%
9%
5%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
Not at all interested Not very interested Somewhat interested Very interested Extremely interested

13. Respondent Profile
Company Size Industry
Total = 192
Top 16 industries are shown
Total = 192
13
5%
8%
8%
30%
35%
14%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
1000 or more
500-999
250-499
100-249
20-99
1-19
2%
2%
3%
3%
3%
3%
3%
5%
5%
6%
6%
7%
7%
9%
10%
16%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20%
Insurance
Transportation
Construction
Software
Consulting
Energy
Legal
Education
Retail
Engineering
Finance
Government
Non profit
IT service provider
Healthcare
Manufacturing

14. Copyright Notice
The contents of this report are a result of primary research performed by Spiceworks. Unless otherwise noted, the entire contents
distributed as part of this report are copyrighted by Spiceworks. As such any information made available by any means in this report may
not be copied, reproduced, duplicated, published, displayed, transmitted, distributed, given, sold, traded, resold, marketed, offered for sale,
modified to create derivative works or otherwise exploited for valuable consideration without prior written consent by Spiceworks. For
information about using data from this report visit, go to www.spiceworks.com/voice-of-it/terms.
This report contains information of fact relating to parties other than Spiceworks. Although the information have been obtained from, and
are based on sources that Spiceworks believes to be reliable, Spiceworks does not guarantee the accuracy, and any such information might
be incomplete or condensed. Any estimates included in this report constitute Spiceworks’ judgment as of the date of compilation, and are
subject to change without notice. This report is for information purposes only. All responsibility for any interpretations or actions based on
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All rights reserved. 2014.
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